Barcelona FC take step to financial safety with further £255m boost from US investment firm Sixth Street July 22, 2022 Spanish football titans Barcelona have taken another step to securing financial security, with a further £255m cash boost from a US investment giant. The debt-ridden Catalan club secured additional cash from Sixth Street to the tune of €300m (£255m), days after unveiling their latest landmark signing, striker Robert Lewandowski. Sixth Street bought a 15 per [...]
Dame Sarah Storey previews the Tour de France Femmes July 22, 2022 One of sport’s most recognisable scenes involves a peloton of more than 170 men hurtling down the Champs-Élysées, where the Tour de France yellow jersey wearer is traditionally crowned champion of the gruelling 21-day bike race. But just hours before the latest chapter of men’s cycling history is written, the first of a monumental era [...]
‘Sport and technology an inevitable crossover of present and future’ July 21, 2022 If you will insist on selling sport tickets that have to be scanned at the turnstile via your app, at least make sure that there’s enough 4G coverage for me to access mine. And don’t make the fallback an email proof of purchase when my mates – including the one who sorted our tickets – [...]
Owning it: Why triathlon’s new PTO Tour is giving equity to athletes like Alistair Brownlee July 20, 2022 Athletes including Britain’s Alistair Brownlee taking part in this weekend’s Canadian Open, the first event proper on triathlon’s new PTO Tour, will have an extra incentive to perform. Because as well as earning prize money they are also part-owners of the body running the tour, the Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO). It means they stand to [...]
‘Cycling’s earnings can – and should – stretch beyond the Tour de France’ July 18, 2022 Cycling is a beautiful and complete sport. It is about individual performance as much as team strategy; has drama, proximity to the public and impressive scenery; and it’s a sport that billions of people can relate to. Yet cycling is suffering from a revenue problem. Currently, teams have to rely on sponsors to survive. Apart [...]
Open champion Cameron Smith fuels LIV Golf talk as Henrik Stenson tipped to join breakaway July 18, 2022 Open champion Cameron Smith has fuelled speculation that he could follow Europe’s Ryder Cup captain Henrik Stenson and a host of big names to the breakaway LIV Golf circuit. Former European No1 Stenson is widely reported to have agreed to join the lucrative Saudi-backed series – a move set to see him stripped of the [...]
Sky Sports pays more than £880m to extend broadcast deal with England cricket chiefs July 14, 2022 Sky Sports has agreed a four-year extension to its current deal as the main broadcast partner of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). The ECB said the agreement, which runs from 2025 to 2028 and covers men’s and women’s internationals, The Hundred and the Vitality Blast, would see Sky show more cricket than ever [...]
Ed Warner: Challenge for women’s football is to create year-round interest July 14, 2022 Tournament organisers are learning to do right by women’s sport. But there’s a way to go yet. An Old Trafford sell-out for England’s opening match in the current Euros was widely and rightly applauded. Sticking Belgium and Iceland into the Academy Stadium at Manchester City’s Etihad Campus feels crass. We’ll never know how many might [...]
Open Championship: Prize money back on the rise in golf as all four majors boost payouts July 13, 2022 Top golfers are earning more than ever as the cream of the men’s game prepare to tee off at the Open Championship on Thursday. Prize money for the 150th edition of the oldest major has been raised to record levels, mirroring increases at the game’s other biggest events. Payouts on the PGA Tour are also [...]
777 Partners vice president: ‘We want BBL to be next best rival to NBA’ July 13, 2022 Investment firm 777 Partners is determined to make the British Basketball League (BBL) the second biggest domestic league in the sport, behind the NBA. Since the US company’s acquisition of 45 per cent in the BBL last year, the league has seen record crowds and will have its first team – the London Lions, who [...]